"Gabe Dikel is a creative artist/painter/filmmaker living in Brooklyn. In a sudden flash of creativity, he saw himself as a Che T-shirt, and with the help of his brother, a piece of cardboard and some orange and black paint: Voila! Everyone wanted to wear him, as is illustrated in these pics."

The hundreds of thousands of Cubans starving and suffering under Batista in the 50’s, the lepers he treated as a physician in the Amazon, and Time magazine (which named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century) might disagree with your characterization of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

As for communism, if the US had supported Castro after the Cuban Revolution, things would have been very different – Castro didn’t turn to communism until he was rebuffed by the US: “Between April 15 and April 26, Castro and a delegation of industrial and international representatives visited the U.S… He was refused a meeting with President Eisenhower. After his visit to the United States, he would go on to join forces with the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev.” (Wikipedia).

I’ve got to say, this is the most original costume I’ve seen this year.

@#1 – Spincycle: I think that’s sorta the point in a way. It’s such an iconic t-shirt image, it’s become a meme in the sense of the andre the giant shepard fairley “OBEY” giant has. It no longer holds any meaning (or never has), and is just a hollow logo used by archetype wannabes. I’d love to wear this costume. In response to all the “What’re you s’posed to be” questions, I’d say “You know, that tshirt guy.”

I know all about Che, and yes, I actually do think that guerrilla warfare, revolutionary communist overthrow of Cuba, etc, has a pretty “cool” ring to it, but the image of che itself has become a cultural icon in its own regard.